Corrugated metal plate



B. B. NHLNER.l

COHRUGATED METAL PLATE.

APPLICATION FILED APR.29,1919.

Patened Aug. 8, 1922.

3 SHETS-SHEET l.

1 diff/ B. B. MILNER.

CORRUGATED METAL PLATE.

APPLICATION FILED APR.29, 1919.

1,425,2@71 I PaIenIedAug.8,w22.

.Qy' j SSHEETS-SHEET 2.

B. B. NHLNER.

CORRUGATED METAL PLATE.

APPLICATION FILED PR. 29. 1919.

Patented Aug. 8, 1922.

3 sHEETssHEET s.

unirse stares BERT B. MXLNER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

CORRUGATED METAL PLATE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Auw. 8, 1922.

Application led April 29, 1919. Serial No. 293,462.

To all whom t may concern:

Be itknown that l, BERT B. MILNER, a-

citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and luseful improvements in Corrugated Metal Plates, of which the following is a specication.

My invention relates to the manufacture by pressing of metal plates or other metal articles formed with corrugations, ribs, embossments, channels or other configurations necessitating the stretching or thinning of the metal during. the pressing operation. The primary object of the invention is to compensate for the unequal stretching or thinning of the metal at different places under conditions imposed by thepressing operation by making -the original plate 'or blank thicker in the regions where thestretching or thinning is greatest. The invention is applicable to the manufacture of metal articles of various different sorts but for purpose of illustration will be shown and described in connection with the manufacture of orrugated plates suitable for use as end wal plates of railway cars.

ln the drawings- Figure 1 shows the application to a railway car of a corrugated plate manufactured in accordance with my invention, this figure being a broken perspective view of the end of a railway car employing a corrugated en d sheet manufacturedin accordance with my invention.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the plate before it is corrugated.

Fig. 3 is an end view of the plate to show the variation in thickness which, for purposes of illustration, has been exaggerated.

Fig. 4 is a somewhat diagrammatic view of the face of the finished plate.

l. Fig. 5 is a sectional view on line 5-5 of Fig. 4. i

Figs. 6 to 10 inclusive are diagrams which may be located on Figs. 2 and 4 as follows: Fig. 6 on line 6-6 of Figs. 2 and 4; Fig. 7, on line 7-7 of Fig. 4; Fig. 8, on line 8-8 of Fig. 2; Fig. 9, on line 9-9 ofFig. 4, and Fig. 10, on line 10--10 of Fig. 2.

Figs. 11 to 14 inclusive, arediagrammatic views illustrating a modified form of plate land method of manufacture; Fig. l1 being an edge view of the plate, before corrugating, along the edge parallel to the lines of the intended corrugations; Fig. 12, a view of the face of the plate, the dotted outline indicating the plate before corrugating, the full line the plate after it has been corrugated, and the dot and dash line. the plate after being trimmed to rectilinear shape; Fig. 13, being a section on line 13-13 of Fig. 12, and Fig. 14, a section on line 14-14 of Fig. 12.

Like characters of reference designate like parts in the several figures of the drawings. l shall first describe the plate and method of manufacturing the same illustrated in Figs. 1 to 10 inclusive. The finished plate 25 here shown is formed with a plurality of substantially parallel corrugations 26 which, Ato all intents and purposes, merge one into the other so that the corrugated portion of the plate has a sinuous configuration as shown in Fig. 1. n this figure the finished plate forms the end sheet of a gondola car, the vertical edges of the plate being flanged over at 27 and attached to the side walls 28 of the car. lThe upper edge of the sheet is provided with 'an angular top chord 29. The portion 30 of the uncorrugated plate 31 (Figs. 2 and 3) is thicker than the rest of the plate. rlhis thickness is indicated by the letter'c. rlhe marginal.

portions 32 of the plate are the thinnest port-ions, the thickness being indicated by a.

The portions 33 adjacent the marginal portions increase in thickness from the'thickness a of the margins to a thickness indicated by b. The portions 34, 34 of the plate intervening between those ydesignated 33 and 30 have a thickness which varies from b to c.

A plate so formed, by rolling, for example, through rolls of suitable contour, is heated to red'heat and pressed between dies having a configuration proper to form in said plate corrugations of the character indicated in Figs. 4, 5, 7 and 9. that is to say, each corrugation will have terminal portions 33', a center portion 30', the contour of which is shown in Fig. 9, and intervening portion 34, the contour of which will vary from that shown in Fig. 7 to that shownin Fig. 9. Where a finished plate is desired which will be of substantially uniform thickness on all places the thickness of the blank before being corrugated along any given line transl verse to the intended corrugations is to be proportionate, in accordancel with my invention, to the amount of stretch of the metal along such line when the plate is subjected to pressure in the operation forming the cori'ugations. When the plate is iolled or otherwise formed to give it the varying thicknesses above indicated, the operation of developing t-he corrugations will thin the plate at the thicker portions so as to reduce it t0y substantially the same thickness throughout, namely, to the thickness of the marginal portions 32. Assuming that during the pressing operation the edges of the plate are restrained so that they will not draw in, the thickness of the plate along different transverse lines is to be determined with reference to the corrugation contours, as follows: Let A represent the distance between corrugation center lines and a, as above stated, t-he thickness of the marginal portions of the plate or of the finished plate at any point. Let B represent the length of the contour line of a corrugation from center line to center line, on line 7-7 of Fig. 4, that is, along the line between portions 33 and 34 of any corrugation, .bbeing the thickness of the original plate along this .same line. Let C represent the length of the contour/line of the corrugation, between center lines, on line 9-9 of F ig. 4, that is,

through the portion of the corrugation-designated30; c being the thickness of the original plate on a corresponding line. The original plate should be so proportioned that A will' be to a as B is to b and C to c. `Work ing this out for a corrugated plate a quarter of an inch thick, a standard thickness for railway car ends, a'will be one quarter of an inch, b .30725 and c .38025 or approxi.- mately so. This will give a corrugation, the middle portion of which will have a cross sectional coiigurat-ion such as shown in F ig. 9, as against a cross sectional configuration adjacent the pointed terminals represented by F ig. 7. ln corrugating a railway car end sheet intended to extend across the car from side to side and formed from a plate a quarter of an inch thick, it is difficult to press the corrugations more than approximately two inches 4deep with center lines six inches apart. Fig. 7 represents this depth of coirugation. By making the sheet thicker at the middle it is possible to obtain corrugation having a depth at the middle of the car indicated by 9 without makl ing the center of the plate any thinner than the other portions. The additional depth of thelcorrugations. at the middleof the car gives the end increased strength and rigidity inasmuch as the corrugations function beams, particularly where one merges other so that one coi'rugation cant without producing some deiect.ie adjacent ccrrugations.

i above proportie il dimensions are iased upon the assum on that the plate, y en being pressed, w ict draw in at the i i: i Las, -1 i ii the piane ont@ maw in to any ap A centiy arranged trated in Figs. 11 to 14 of the drawingsV hereof.

According to this method, a sheet is provided in which the corrugations are of uniform cross sectional area throughout their length (except at their terminals), the expedient of makingthe original plate thicker at certain places than at others being, in this case, to compensate for the difference in stretch due to the inversely proportioned draw in of the edges, this method contemplating a pressing operation in which the edges of the plate are free to draw in when the plate is acted upon by the dies. Referring to F ig. 12, the dotted outline 35 indicates theoutline' of the original plate. The full lines 36, 37 form the outline of the plate after the corrugations have been pressed into the same. The dash and dot line 38 indicates the lfinished plate after having been sheared to rectangular shape. As shown by lines 36, the edges of the plate parallel to the corrugations will pull in the most at the middle. The stretch of the metal will necessarily have to be greatest along the lines D, D .intersecting the corrugations at the places where they start to taper, because while the pull in of the metal continues to decrease from these lines outwardly to the ends of the sheet the transverse contour lines of the corrugations also diminish because ofthe tapering of the corrugations. The original plate is made thickest along the lines D, D, as indicated at 39, F ig. 11. The thickness of the plate along the lines D, D, and the slope of the surfaces 40, 41 on opposite sides of these lines, will be proportioned to the stretch of the metal at these places. rThis can be determined empirically. As a result of giving the plate this configuration, which can be accomplished in rolling, the` finished corrugated sheet can be made of substantially uniform thickness throughout, where this is desirable, whereas under present practice there has always been a tendency to thin the metal along the lines of the junction between the main portions of the corrugations and their pointed terminals.

l do not claim herein the method of pressing above described as this method forms `the subject matter of a co-pending application tiled as a dii i i hereof September 5, i919 Serial No. 532i ciaini:

l. is a neil.y metal plate l1 article of manufacture, a tino pressed therein adjareiatively deep, narrow corp-ri rugations terminating within the edges oi the plates, which plate is of substantially uniform thickness throughout the corrugated portion thereof.

2. As a new article of manufacture, a metal platehaving pressed therein relatively deep, narrow corrugations terminating within the edges of the plate, leaving fiat uncorrugated marginal portions, and having their maximum cross sectional area at the middle land tapering toward their extremities, which plate is of substantially the same' thickness throughout the corrugated portion thereof. I

3. A car end structure comprising a metal end sheet extending across the end of the car and anchored to the body thereof formed with a plurality of adj acently arranged corrugations which terminatel within the edges of the plate, leaving flat marginal portions, said plate being of substantially the same thickness throughout the corrugated and marginal portions thereof.

4. A car end structure comprising a metal end sheet extending across the end of the car and anchored to the body thereof, formed with a plurality of adjacently arranged corrugations pressed in one direction only from the plane of the sheet terminating within the edges, of the sheet, having their maximum cross sectional area at the middle, and tapering toward the extremities, said sheet being of substantially the same thick.- ness throughout the corrugated portion thereof.

5. A. sheet metal article formed with adjacent emb'ossments pressed in one direction only from the plane of the sheet and being of substantially uniform thickness throughout.

6. The combination with the body of a railway car, of an end structure comprising a plate provided with meansvfor attaching opposite edges to the car body, the plate being formed with flat marginal portions and with pressed rigidifying embossments of substantially equal thickness throughout the portion thereof midway between the aforesaid attached edges containing a greater ag-' gregate volume of metal than the portions on opposite sides of said middle portion.

7. The combination with the body of a railway car, of an end structure comprising a plate provided with means for attaching opposite edges .to the car body, the plate being formed with 'fiat marginal portions and with pressed, rigidifying embossments of substantiaily uniform thickness throughout and the middle portions of the recesses formed by said embossments being of greater cross sectional area than the end portions thereof.

8. rlhe combination with the body of a railway car, of an end structure comprising a plate provided with means for attaching opposite edges to the car body, the plate being formed with adjacently arranged pressed, rigidifying embossments which are parallel, project from one side of the plate only merge into each other and are of substantially uniform thickness throughout the middle portions of said embossments being deeper than the end portions thereof.

9. rllhe combination with the body of a railway car, of angend structure comprising a plate provided with means lfor attaching opposite edges'to the car body, the plate being formed with pressed, relatively deep and narrow rigidifying embossments substantially transverse to said attached edges, parallel and merging into each other and of substantially uniform thickness throughout the middle portions of said embossments being deeper than the end portions thereof.

10. The combination with the sidewalls `of a. railway car, of an end structure comprising a plate provided with means for attaching opposite edges thereof to saidside walls, the plate being formed with pressed, relatively deep horizontally and contiguouslyjdisposed embossments of substantially uniform thickness throughout, the recesses formed by said embossments being of greater cross sectional area at their middle portions than at their ends.

BERT B. MLNER. 

